IPL 2012: Ryder Blasts Pune Back To The Top

Pune Warriors roared back to winning ways, beating Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets at Pune to to the top of the Indian Premier league 2012 table.

Their victory takes them to the top once again having won three out of four games, while Chennai have lost an equal number out of five matches so far.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first. Murali Vijay’s horrible run with the bat continued as he was out for only eight runs. Francois du Plessis, though, carried on with his superb touch to smack 43 off 33 balls, including five fours and two sixes, giving the innings an early impetus.

However, Pune kept things tight with incisive bowling and sharp fielding, never allowing the batting side to run away with the game.

du Plessis was second out in the tenth over, stumped immediately after the strategic break and the score at that time was 67 for two.

Suresh Raina had come out at number three and after much criticism about his batting position, Dhoni promoted himself to number four. They both got starts, scoring 20 and 26 runs each, but it wasn’t enough to give a platform to the rest of the batsmen.

Spinners Rahul Sharma and Marlon Samuels bowled beautifully to keep these free-scoring batsmen in check, with the former finishing up as their best bowler after taking two for 16 in three overs.

Ravindra Jadeja played a neat little power cameo at the end, striking 44 runs off just 26 balls, to give the score a flourish. He hit four fours and two sixes as Chennai finished at 155 for five.

The Pune innings was jolted at the top by two runouts, of Robin Uthappa and skipper Sourav Ganguly, and this is becoming a habit with this team.

But thankfully they had enough runs on board at that time to counter any sort of collapse and fightback from Chennai. This was all thanks to Jesse Ryder who played a blinder of an innings to win them the match.

Uthappa was out for ten while Ganguly was gone for 16. The score read 65 for two in the ninth over and it brought out Marlon Samuels to the crease.

Throughout his stay of 15 balls, off which he scored only eight runs, the West Indian batsman seemed at loggerheads with his partner and the team heaved a sigh of relief when he was back in the hut.

Ryder carried on in sight of victory and was aided by Steve Smith who hit a blitzkrieg 44 off 22 balls, with four fours and three sixes, just as the match seemed to be getting away from them.

Pune won with four balls to spare and Ryder finished at 73 not out off 56 balls, including seven fours and one six.